Footed furniture leg



Dec. 23, 1958 'A. c. HOVENV ET AL FOOTED FURNITURE LEG Filed Dec. 51, 1956 INVENTOR5 Jllfred C. .Hoflezz lzrz' .3 ark Dougla-{Nlflump Wal'le r E. No z-dm ATTORNEY United States Patent D FOOTED FURNITURE LEG Alfred C. Hoven, Douglas N. Humphries, and Walter E.

Nordmark, Grand Rapids, Mich., assignors to American Seating Company, Grand Rapids, Mich., a corporation of New Jersey Application December 31, 1956, Serial No. 631,734

2 Claims. (Cl. 45-137) The present invention relates to furniture construction and more particularly to footed supporting legs for articles of furniture or the like.

The primary objects of the invention are to provide a footed furniture leg in which the leg is fabricated of metal tubing and a resilient foot of rubber or the like is attached to the lower end of the leg; to provide means and a method for easily and economically assembling the foot to the leg and in such a manner that after they are assembled, removal of the foot from the leg is extremely difficult thus to prevent accidental removal or deliberate and surreptitious removal as sometimes occurs in schools; and to provide such a footed furniture leg which is economical in manufacture, durable in use, and at tractive in appearance.

An illustrative embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure l is a perspective view of a table equipped with legs having feet according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the lower end of a furniture leg in one stage of its fabrication;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary side elevational view the lower end of the completed leg, and a side elevational view of the foot therefor;

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view of the assembled leg and foot; and

Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view thereof taken on line 5-5 of Figure 4.

Referring now in detail to these drawings, the table shown in Figure 1 generally comprises a table top 10, mounting brackets 11 on the underside of the top 10, and outwardly-downwardly sloping supporting legs 12 connected to the mounting brackets 11 and provided with feet 13 on the lower ends thereof.

Each leg 12 comprises a length of metal tubing which is first swaged to downwardly tapered form as seen in Figure 2. The metal at the narrow lower end of the leg is then upset as seen in Figure 3 to form a toroidal protuberance 14 in which the metal of the leg is curled outwardly, then downwardly and finally inwardly to define a flat bottom surface 15.

Each foot 13 is molded of relatively hard but somewhat resilient material such as a rubber composition or a plastic. The foot 13 has a toroidal cavity 16 therein conforming in shape and size to the protuberance 14 on the leg 12, and a restricted opening 17 extending from the cavity 16 through the top of the foot.

The foot 13 and leg 12 are assembled by forcing the legs protuberance 14 through the restricted opening 17 See so that the protuberance enters the cavity 16 in the foot. This forcing may if desired be facilitated by the application of a soap solution to the parts. After assembly, and after drying of the soap solution if such has been applied, the protuberance 14 is confined within the cavity 16 and it is extremely diflicult to remove the foot from the leg. However should the foot become so worn as to require replacement, it can readily be removed from the leg by cutting through the foot and peeling it ofli.

The life of the foot 13 is maximized by provision of the flat bottom surface 15 on the legs protuberance 14, which surface rests on the flat surface at the bottom of the foots cavity 16. In this construction there are no sharp metal parts tending to cut through the foot.

The outer surface of the molded foot 13 is downwardly divergent from the top of the foot to a plane through its cavity 16, then downwardly convergent to a parallel plane below said cavity, and finally terminating in a cone the angle of which is fixed with respect to the slope of the leg so that the foot maintains a line contact with a level floor, as seen in Figure 4, regardless of the turned position of the foot on the leg. Also, in tables wherein the legs all slope at the same angle which is usually the case as seen in Figure 1, it is unnecessary to select a particular foot for a particular leg since these parts are all interchangeable.

It will thus be seen that the invention provides a footed furniture leg which is economical, utilitarian and attractive, and While but one specific embodiment thereof has been herein shown and described it will be understood that numerous details thereof may be altered or omitted without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined by the following claims.

We claim:

1. A footed furniture leg comprising: a molded foot of resilient material having a toroidal cavity therein and a restricted opening extending from said cavity through the top of the foot, and a downwardly sloping tubular metal leg having at its lower extremity a toroidal protuberance seated in said cavity with the leg protruding upwardly through said restricted opening, said molded foot being downwardly divergent from the top of the foot to a plane through said cavity, then downwardly convergent to a parallel plane below said cavity, and finally terminating in a cone concentric with the axis of the leg and of such conical slope relative to the slope of the leg that the foot makes line contact with the floor regardless of its turned position on the leg.

2. A footed furniture leg according to claim 1 in which the molded foot has a flat surface at the bottom of the References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 383,809 Herrick May 29, 1888 1,903,609 Uhl Apr. 11, 1933 1,907,765 Erickson May 9, 1933 2,030,649 Miller Feb. 11, 1936 

